The latest on California politics and government

January 12, 2011

The father of Luis Dos Santos, the college student who was killed in a fight that involved the son of former Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez, has told a Los Angeles radio station that he received a letter of apology from former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

On Jan. 2, his last day in office, Schwarzenegger reduced the prison sentence of Esteban Núñez from 16 years to seven. Esteban Nunez pleaded to manslaughter in the killing of Dos Santos and assault with a deadly weapon for stabbing another man during a drunken fight at San Deigo State University in 2008.

Fred Santos, the father of the slain man, told radio station KNX 1070 this morning that Schwarzenegger sent him a letter apologizing for not notifying the Santos family that Nunez's sentence was being commuted.

"We received a letter last Saturday from our former governor saying that he acknowledges that he did not give us any notice of what he was planning to do," Santos said in the radio interview.

"We do not believe the sincerity of the apology. We do thank him for writing the letter but if there were not any outrage over his actions we do not think we would have received this letter."

Santos also told the station that his family is talking to lawyers and considering a lawsuit.

"We think our constitutional rights as victims have been violated because we were not notified of the actions prior to this, as we were supposed to," Santos said.

Listen to the whole interview here. The letter, obtained by KNX, is posted below.